Category: Press Releases

Unique Worldwide Competition Returns for Fourth Year with New Categories, New Sponsors, and a New Trophy Design

(New York, NY)—The Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAS) has announced that its 2023 Awards Competition is now open and accepting beer-related marketing and design entries from around the globe (including hard seltzer, cider, mead, and RTD cocktails). Breweries, their agencies, artists, and marketing partners are all invited to enter their best work.

There are some exciting additions this year, including new categories, new sponsors, a redesigned Crushie award trophy, and plans for a LIVE, in-person awards ceremony during the week of the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, TN.

The deadline for discounted “Early Bird” entries is October 28, 2022. Regular entries are being accepted through January 27, 2023.

“The CBMAS has grown significantly as a unique global platform celebrating the beer industry’s incredible marketing and design that wasn’t being recognized until now,” said Jim McCune, co-founder of the CBMAS. “We’ll continue to award Crushies to the very best work in our industry, and showcase that winning work, and the creative humans behind it.”

Founded in 2019, the CBMAs is the first worldwide awards program of its kind that focuses specifically on excellence in the artistic and creative marketing and packaging efforts of breweries, designers, and agencies that play an increasingly critical role in differentiating craft beer brands in the retail marketplace.

The CBMAS has quickly become a popular industry expert voice that honors the individuals and teams who are involved in building these amazing beverage brands. The CBMAS presented a marketing trends seminar at the 2022 Craft Brewers Conference, and also hosts a successful podcast (now in its third year)—Marketing on Tap—sponsored by EGC Group, which is available on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.

In the 2022 CBMAS award season, 250 Crushie trophies were presented to winning brewers, designers, and marketing agencies throughout the world. The tally included 89 Platinum Crushie winners, 135 Gold Crushie winners, and 26 Global Crushie winners. Click here to see the full list of the 2022 CBMAS Winner’s Gallery.

New for the 2023 Award Season:

Crushie Award Redesign

The Crushie trophy has been reinvented and can now be removed from the base to be used as a fully functional tap handle. This innovation was designed and produced all within the industry, and made in the USA by Steel City Taps.

“We’re so excited to be working with Steel City Taps on the creation of these new Crushie trophies that become tap handles,” said Jackie DiBella-Curry, co-founder of the CBMAS. “It was really important for us to figure out how to keep the trophy production within the industry—and to make the Crushies even cooler, and more functional for winners to display.”

Click here to learn more about the Crushie Awards trophy.

Expanding Sponsors and Industry Associations

Houston-based Hillebrand Bev Pros returns as the presenting sponsor for the fourth year in a row. New sponsors this year include: Yakima, WA-based Yakima Chief Hops, Deer Park, NY-based DWS Printing and Birmingham, AL-based Steel City Taps (producers of the new Crushies) and Sterling, VA-based BarTrack.

The CBMAS has also formed memberships with well-known industry organizations that include The Brewers Association (BA), New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA), and many of its judges are affiliated with various beverage and beer industry associations throughout the world.

New Crushie Categories

The 2023 CBMAS consist of 38 categories that cover all aspects of brew marketing—from labels to logos and tap handles to taprooms. And this year, the CBMAS added newly designated categories to recognize industry suppliers and partners.

Proceeds of the all-new beer-related tattoo category, “Show off Your Tatts,” will be donated to The Michael James Jackson Foundation, a grant-making organization that funds scholarship awards to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color within the brewing and distilling trades for a more just, equitable, and dynamic future.

To see the full list of categories, click here.

CBMAS Worldwide Entry Regions

Entries are divided up into five regions across the globe: 

• The Americas
• United Kingdom
• Europe
• APAC – Asia and Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
• MENA – Middle East and North Africa  

The CBMAS’ judging process is a robust, credible, and transparent digital scoring system that is ranked by an influential and respected worldwide panel of more than 500 beer, marketing, and design experts from over 23 countries.

Platinum and Gold Crushies will be awarded to winners in each region. Global Crushies will be awarded to winners who opt-in to be judged at a global level in addition to their regional entry.

 CBMAS Timeline

• Early Bird Entry Period: September 26 – October 28, 2022 

• Full Entry Period: September 2022 – January 27, 2023 

• Judging: March 6, 2023 – April 11, 2023  

• Winners Announced: Week of May 7, 2023 @ CBC event (TBD) and via live stream

The full live awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in person with a virtual feed during the week of the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in May in Nashville, TN. Entries are open to anyone involved in marketing within the brewing industry—including cider and hard seltzer—across the world. For additional information, visit craftbeermarketingawards.com.

ABOUT CRAFT BEER MARKETING AWARDS

The Craft Beer Marketing Awards was established in 2019 to give recognition to the best of the best in the marketing realm of the brewing industry. With categories that range from the “Best Can Design” to “Coolest Taproom,” and “Best Website Design” to “Best Original Videos,” there’s an opportunity to showcase the best work in every area of marketing in the brewing industry. For more information, and to listen to the Marketing On Tap Podcast sponsored by EGC Group, visit https://craftbeermarketingawards.com/podcast/.

Sacramento, Calif. – California’s craft beer industry cleared a few obstacles to its future growth last week when Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law updated rules that will allow independent breweries to expand in communities throughout the state.

AB 2307 raises the limit on brewery growth from six satellite locations to eight, and lifts the cap on how many of those tap rooms can have a full kitchen from two to four. AB 2301 simply allows breweries to distribute to restaurants they own within a five-mile radius.

“We just want our brewers to feel that the sky’s the limit on what they can achieve,” said Lori Ajax, executive director of the California Craft Brewers Association. “We are grateful that the governor supports these small businesses and signed AB 2301 and AB 2307.”

The brewing industry in California has doubled in the last eight years, and collectively breweries pump billions of dollars into the state’s economy each year. The industry is straining at the seams to meet customer demand for good beer and family-friendly gathering spaces and the legal limit was holding craft beer back.

Fieldwork Brewing Company’s co-founder, Barry Braden, is thrilled to be able to continue providing more great beer and comfortable, airy tap rooms to communities around the Bay Area. Fieldwork’s recent soft-opening in San Leandro was going to be their last for a while if AB 2307, written by Assemblyman Marc Berman (D- Menlo Park), hadn’t been signed.

“San Leandro was our biggest opening ever,” Fieldwork co-founder Barry Braden said. “We believe in meeting customers where they’re at, bringing them a community-centered space with great beer. But we had hit our limit on licenses.”

Similarly, in Sacramento, Urban Roots Brewery’s Peter Hoey is excited that his next restaurant won’t require a distributor. Currently, Urban Roots hires a Concord-based distributor to haul beer from their brewery to the warehouse several counties away, and back to BAWK! By Urban Roots, their fried chicken spot, which sits four-tenths of a mile away from the brewery.

“What’s funny is that we could sell directly to The Shady Lady on one side and Burgers and Brew on the other,” Hoey said, referencing BAWK!’s neighbors. “But we couldn’t sell in the middle because we own it.”

AB 2301, authored by Assemblyman Jim Wood (D- Santa Rosa), simply eliminates the need for that nearly 200 mile ordeal by allowing Urban Roots to distribute their own beer to restaurants they own, which will soon include a reopened local Folsom Blvd. favorite, The Shack.

Both brewers say that the newly-approved legislation will be key in encouraging new local entrepreneurs to open up shop in their communities.

“It’s for the breweries that haven’t even started yet,” Braden said. “It’s for the brewers who are putting pens to paper, planning, and thinking about whether this is something they can make a living doing.”

CA Craft Beer Week Returns and Independent Breweries Rally to Support Local Communities and the California Craft Beer Industry

The return of CA Craft Beer Week July 15-24 spotlights local, independent breweries, their contributions to reviving community, and a tasty statewide collaboration

 — JUNE  22, 2022 — This July, the California Craft Brewers Association, regional California brewers guilds and hundreds of independent California craft breweries are collaborating to help revive local craft beer scenes hit hard by Covid, and rekindle community connections through a statewide collaboration beer release series, and the return of CA Craft Beer Week, July 15-24.

Led by the Bay Area Brewers Guild (BABG), CA Craft Beer Week (CCBW) launched in winter 2021 to help offset devastating statewide closures of tasting rooms, as well as bars, restaurants and other retailers who purchase and serve craft beer. Regional craft leaders from the San Diego Brewers Guild, Los Angeles County Brewers Guild, Orange County Brewers Guild, Inland Empire Brewers Guild, Sacramento Area Brewers Guild, and Central Coast Brewers Guild joined the BABG and CCBA bringing CA Craft Beer Week to life.

The collaborative spirit of California’s craft beer industry led participants to bring CA Craft Beer Week back this summer, to spotlight small, craft-centric businesses in Californian’s backyards, producing local craft products, keeping revenue within local economies, creating local jobs, contributing to local causes, and, as important, providing places and rebuilding connections within their communities to assist recovery and renewal of towns and cities across the state. Making its return possible is Whole Foods Market, back again in 2022 as title/name sponsor.

Local craft beer scenes are front and center throughout CCBW, with consumers able to drill down to a multitude of releases and events in each corner of the state via cacraftbeerweek.com. Initial listings are now live; many more are on the way.

Alongside activities in local taprooms and craft venues, CCBW will be showcasing high-profile releases including the CCBA Brewers Collaboration Beer. The funds raised from this special release will help local breweries in your neighborhood, and throughout the state, continue to grow and thrive. Learn more here. The program features a “who’s who” of California craft breweries, from north to south.

21st Amendment Brewery
Angry Horse Brewing
At Ease Brewing Co.
Beachwood BBQ & Brewing
Black Hammer Brewing
Drake’s Brewing Co.
Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Humdinger Brewing
Liquid Gravity Brewing
Mammoth Brewing
Pacific Islander Beer Co.
Pizza Port Brewing Co.
Russian River Brewing Co
Sante Adairius Rustic Ales
Shadow Puppet Brewing Co.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Smog City Brewing
Societe Brewing Co.
South Lake Tahoe Brewing Co.
Temblor Brewing Co.
Urban Roots Brewing

More cool collaborations, events and special releases will be on tap for CCBW releases, like Sun Supreme, a Coffee Blonde Ale from Brouwerij West featuring Groundwork Coffee; Electrohop, a West Coast IPA brewed to celebrate Beachwood BBQ & Brewing’s 11th anniversary; and Errybody & Their Mama Beer Fest, a collaboration between The Rare Barrel and Hella Coastal on July 23 in Berkeley, Calif.

California is the birthplace of the American craft brewing movement with more than 1150 breweries in operation across the state. The California brewing industry continues to lead the nation in innovation, economic impact and job creation. With new breweries continuing to open in California, craft beer supports more than 65,000 jobs statewide and contributes $9.66 billion annually to the state economy.

ABOUT
CA Craft Beer Week is a collective co-promotion initiative led by the Bay Area Brewers Guild and the California Craft Brewers Association, both non-profit trade associations, in collaboration with the Central Coast Brewers Guild, the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild, the Orange County Brewers Guild, the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild, and the San Diego Brewers Guild.

Direct inquiries to:  Joanne Marino, Bay Area Brewers Guild, joanne@bayareabrewers.org

Lift a lager for Rosie! East Brother Beer Company and Rosie the Riveter Trust present the Pride & Purpose Beer Festival, the first beer festival in Northern California to make lagers the main attraction. The festival will take place on June 18th, 2022 at East Brother Beer Company, located at 1001 Canal Blvd in Richmond California.

Why Lagers?
When we launched East Brother Beer Company in 2016, we committed to sticking with the classics. Our instinct and palates told us that classics, and lagers specifically, would be on the rise in the craft world. For a long time, macro breweries had set the standard for what American beer drinkers consider a lager; and that pale, lightly malted beer quickly made lagers the butt of the joke…but brewing an exceptional lager is no joke! It takes a remarkable amount of time and skill to brew this style of beer well; lagers are labor, and they can be unforgiving. As our Head Brewer Paul Liszewski (whose license plate reads “LAGER”) says, “If there’s an off-flavor, if you’ve rushed things, there’s nothing to hide behind.” A lager is a true testament to a brewer’s ability to make great beer.

Pride & Purpose
Lagers are as diverse as the communities we live in, so East Brother Beer Company’s Pride & Purpose Beer Festival has set out to bring Northern California’s legendary craft beer professionals together to Lift a Lager for Rosie. The festival will feature at least 25 breweries pouring more than 50 beers. Fellow brewers like Anderson Valley, Crooked Lane, Drake’s, Faction, Fieldwork, HenHouse, Heretic, Hunters Point, Local (and a whole bunch more from M to Z) will be pouring their personal favorites, with more than half of the featured styles being lagers. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Rosie the Riveter Trust, the official nonprofit partner of Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historic Park located in Richmond, California.

BBTS (Beer Behind the Scenes)
Moderated by Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting, there will be a Pride & Purpose panel discussion at noon with craft beer luminaries and authors like Jeff Alworth, author of The Beer Bible, freelance beer writer Lou Bustamante, Ron Silberstein, co-founder of Admiral Maltings, and more. This in-depth discussion, best enjoyed with a cold beer, will focus on lagers, what it takes to brew them, and the long historic relationship between beer and labor.

Celebrating hard-working men and women, this festival is more than about just beer. In partnership with Rosie the Riveter Trust, the Pride & Purpose Beer Festival will share stories from the past with the Rosies, the Boilermakers, and countless others who showed up for their communities during WWII, as well as those of the present by showcasing local makers and trades organizations.

Tickets and Information
Tickets are available through Eventbrite with a full festival schedule at eastbrotherbeer.com/beerfestival. Ticket prices begin at $60 per person, $75 per person including early access, and $20 per person for non-alcoholic beverage attendees.